1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a simulation system.
2. Description of the Related Art
A common type of interactive computer experience is the simulation. In its most general sense, a simulation is the imitative representation of the functioning of a system or process. In many cases, a user is presented with a representation of some experience, such as performing an activity. There are many types of simulators. One well known example is a flight simulator, in which a user interacts with a computer that provides the user with a visual experience of flying an aircraft. Simulators can be used for training, research, entertainment, education, as well as many other suitable activities.
With the increasing sophistication of both computer hardware and the uses of simulation systems, it has become desirable to integrate multiple users simultaneously into a simulation. In some cases, multi-user simulation is accomplished by having two users independently carry out much of the simulation and share enough data to place one another within their respective simulations. However, such arrangements are often inefficient or ineffective when more than just a small number of individual users of the simulation are simultaneously involved.
Other multi-user simulations may involve the use of a single large central computer. Users may send or receive data from the central computer, while computationally intensive operations are performed on the central computer. In such simulations, the amount of computation involved may exceed the capabilities of many computers systems. Other systems may subdivide the simulation space, but not in a contiguous way. Yet another system uses a grid of computers to carry out the simulation; however, the simulation is not continuous and there is not a one to one correspondence between locations on the grid and a specific computer.
The above described simulation systems place the burden of computing the behavior of the environment on the user's computer or central computer. For example, the physics of a rocket salvo or the behavior of a group of angry monsters must be calculated in real time by the computer before being provided to the presentation system for display or rendering. This load greatly reduces the number of different objects or interactions that can be involved in the simulation, as well as the overall richness of the experience presented to the end user.
Similarly, today's simulation experiences are also limited by the size of the computer's memory and storage devices, which determine the size of the simulation space that can be explored. The simulation space is the process, real world location, virtual world, device, other system being simulated.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved simulation system in which multiple users may interact with the environment and with each other.